Thursday's discussion

I thought Meghan's discussion on Thursday was fantastic. I love the Gloria Steinem piece on menstruation and I think it relates to this class and the Lorber reading very well. I thought we had an awesome class discussion and it was interesting to see different points of view.

There were a few things in class that were brought up that I'd like to expand on. Someone had made a comment along the lines of "it seems like some things try to make women seem better than men." (Not an exact quote, but something to that regard.) I just wanted to clear up any confusion that people may have about feminism. Having feminist beliefs does not mean that you want to out do men by any means. It just recognizes that there is still inequality between the genders and it tries to create equal access to power and resources for women and girls. Like we said in class, we're still talking about these issues because things still are not equal. It's a shame that stereotypes can ruin an image, a belief system, or a group of people.

Other interesting points made in class was that the poem was satire and pointed only to "what ifs". I do think that theory is needed to work through these important issues, and that we can't just complain about things but need to actually do something about them. But, to start, thinking about what ifs allows us to shatter the norms and get inspired to enact social change. Those what ifs can be the starting point to allow people to say "Hey, that would be better wouldn't it? Let's see what we can do about it." Obviously, we can't make men menstruate, but we can start to think how menstruation, pregnancy, birth, abortion- a lot of things, really- are medicalized and stigmatized in our society and how certain language and practices related to these personal things can be really damaging to women. We can shatter the norms and shift ways of thinking away from the traditional systems, if we decide that those systems don't work anymore. I'm sure a lot of social movements, experiments and interventions started with a "what if?"

I came across this really great blog recently, and she talks about a lot of these issues facing women and how certain things are stigmatized and can be very damaging. The link is http://www.womanstats.org/blog10.htm, and she has a post specifically on menstruation. She talks about a lot of what we said in class- how shame and secrecy surrounding it can have harmful effects on girls and women, and she debunks myths about menstruation that people have held for years. It proves that we can't just "get over it" and "embrace it" as much as we want to. Unfortunately, we live in a society that does not often allow women to just "be themselves" without there being some consequences.

Along with menstruation, pregnancy and birth are very much stigmatized in our society, and many places do not have the respect for pregnant women that they should. Yes, men also risk losing their jobs if they take leave from work. But they usually have the choice. Women, since they physically are the ones who give birth, need to take maternity leave, and often times are not guaranteed their jobs when they return. We are also one of the only countries that does not have paid maternity leave! (See pictures below)

It's just a shame that after all these years, we are still fighting for equality, and that women get punished for natural bodily functions that we have no control over.